The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
The scaffolding adaptor protein p62/SQSTM1 (p62) has been shown to be an autophagy receptor that acts as a link between the ubiquitination and autophagy machineries. However, the roles of autophagy and p62 in human keratinocytes are not well understo…
Tick saliva has potent immunomodulatory properties. In arthropod-borne diseases, this effect is largely used by microorganisms to increase their pathogenicity and to evade host immune responses. We show that in Lyme borreliosis, tick salivary gland e…
LL-37 is a human cationic host defense peptide (antimicrobial peptide) belonging to the cathelicidin family of peptides. In this study, LL-37 was shown to kill stimulated CD8(+) T cells (Cytotoxic T lymphocytes; CTLs) via apoptosis, while having no c…
Peptide antibiotics are produced by a wide range of microorganisms. Most of them target the cell envelope, often by inhibiting cell wall synthesis. One of the resistance mechanisms against antimicrobial peptides is a detoxification module consisting…
Infectious diseases, especially, diarrhoea, are responsible for high mortality rates in developing countries. Zinc supplementation shows beneficial effects against such diseases, but the mechanism of action is poorly understood. Here, we examined whe…
AIMS: Ceragenin CSA-13 is a synthetic mimic of cationic antibacterial peptides, with facial amphiphilic morphology reproduced using a cholic acid scaffold. Previous data have shown that this molecule displays broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, wh…
BACKGROUND: The antimicrobial peptide, leucine-leucine-37 (LL-37), stimulates proliferation, angiogenesis, and cellular migration, inhibits apoptosis and is associated with inflammation. Since these functional processes are often exaggerated in cance…
Cathelicidins were initially characterized as a family of antimicrobial peptides. Now it is clear that they fulfill several immune functions in addition to their antimicrobial activity. In the current work, three cDNA sequences encoding pheasant cath…
Cathelicidin antimicrobial peptides are multifunctional peptides that are important in the innate immune system of mammals. Cathelicidins have been identified in several fish species. In this study we have isolated cathelicidin from Atlantic cod (Gad…
LL-37 peptide is a multifunctional host defense molecule essential for normal immune responses to infection or tissue injury. In this study we assess the impact of LL-37 on endothelial stiffness and barrier permeability. Fluorescence microscopy revea…
Kallikrein-related peptidase-8 (KLK8) is a relatively uncharacterized epidermal protease. Although proposed to regulate skin-barrier desquamation and recovery, the catalytic activity of KLK8 was never demonstrated in human epidermis, and its regulato…
The broad spectrum of antibacterial activities of host defense cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) arises from their ability to perturb membrane integrity of the microbes. The mechanisms are often thought to require assembly of AMPs on the membran…
Antimicrobial proteins in neutrophil granules exert their bactericidal activity both within the neutrophil phagolysosome and as components of neutrophil extracellular traps. This study evaluated the bactericidal activity of porcine neutrophil secreti…
Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2 (NOD2) is a cytoplasmic pattern recognition receptor (PRR), which is involved in innate antibacterial and antiviral responses. Here, two NOD2 splice variants, trNOD2a and trNOD2b, are reported in rainbow tr…
The antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin LL-37 possesses antituberculous activity, its association with other mycobacterial diseases, such as leprosy, is unknown. We studied serum cathelicidin and 25OH-vitamin D3 levels in 29 leprosy patients and 19 he…
With the emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), a new class of antimycobacterial agents with very different modes of action compared to classical antibiotics, are urgently needed…
This review looks at the critical role of vitamin D in improving barrier function, production of antimicrobial peptides including cathelicidin and some defensins, and immune modulation. The function of vitamin D in the innate immune system and in the…
Inflammatory diseases remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Cathelicidins are immunomodulatory and antimicrobial peptides with potent anti-endotoxic properties. Although the effects of the human cathelicidin LL-37 on cellular response…
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small proteins involved in defense against pathogenic organisms. Defensins and cathelicidin are the most frequently studied human AMPs. Our goals were to determine the distribution of AMPs and evaluate their mRNA exp…